Search

An evaluation of the gamma-neutron shielding capabilities of polymer nanocomposite materials based on polypropylene and iron nanoparticles is presented in this study. The chemical composition of the materials is (100-x) PP-Fex, (where x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 wt percent). For the proposed polymer samples with photon energies ranging from 30 to 2000 KeV, the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), a crucial parameter for studying gamma-ray shielding capability, was calculated using the Geant4 Monte Carlo code. Results were compared with those predicted by EpiXS. The values of the Geant4 code and the EpiXS software were both found to be in excellent agreement. Using the mass attenuation coefficient values, we determined the linear attenuation coefficients, electron density, effective atomic number, and half value layer for all the samples. The shielding properties of the polymer samples were also evaluated by estimating both the fast neutron removal cross-section and the mean free path of the fast neutron at energies between 0.25 and 5.5 keV. The study's findings indicate a positive correlation between the Fe nanoparticle content and the gamma-ray shielding performance of PP-Fe polymer samples. Out of the several glasses that were evaluated, it was found that the PP-Fe5 polymer sample demonstrates the highest efficacy in terms of gamma-ray shielding. Moreover, the polymer sample PP-Fe5, which consists of 5 mol% of iron (Fe), exhibits the highest value of ∑R (1.10650 cm -1 ) and the lowest value of the mean free path for fast neutrons. This indicates that the PP-Fe 5 possesses better gamma-neutron shielding efficiency., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None declared., (Copyright © 2023 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The role of dysprosium oxide (Dy2O3)-doped PbO–B2O3–SiO2 glasses on gamma and neutron radiation shielding properties was investigated and evaluated in terms of potential use in radiation protection. The glass composition was arranged according to the formula (55–x)B2O3–25PbO–20SiO2–xDy2O3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 5) (mol%). The Monte Carlo simulation (MCNPX) code was utilised to simulate the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) of the glasses. When photon energies were in the range of 0.015–15 MeV, the resulting simulated mass attenuation (µm) values were evaluated with conventional Phy-X/PSD database findings. The Phy-X/PSD collected data and the predicted µm findings were in good agreement. The half-value layer (HVL), effective atomic number (Zeff), exposure and energy absorption build-up factors (EBF and EABF) of the glass samples were evaluated. 5 mol% Dy2O3-doped sample has significant γ-ray shielding efficacy in the complete energy range due to lower values of HVL, higher values of MAC and effective atomic number. The build-up factors follow a similar pattern with incident photon energy and penetration depth, growing on a steeply increasing trend up to a maximum at 0.5–1.5 MeV energy, then gradually reducing as photon energy increases up to 15 MeV. The build-up factors show the same routine with penetration depth and incident photon energy. They tend to steeply rise to a peak level at 0.5–1.5 MeV energy, then gradually decrease as the photon energy increases to 15 MeV. Also, the neutron shielding ability was detected and the effective removal cross-section Σ R (cm−1) was estimated theoretically. Due to the greatest value of effective removal cross-section, 5 mol% Dy2O3-doped glass exhibits stronger neutron shielding characteristics than the other glass samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]